Any British Gas customers having trouble accessing house.co.uk?

browsingid

I am having trouble getting access to my account information through British Gas' house.co.uk website.

I have been registered for years, with no previous problems.

I received an email this morning telling me my final bill was available, and that I should log in and have a look, and I am seeing the following message:

"maintenance notice
We're sorry, but the 'manage your bills' area is currently unavailable due to necessary maintenance work.

In order to provide you with the very best experience, we are upgrading our website. While this happens the facility to pay and view bills may be unavailabe. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience. Normal service will resume shortly."

I am a little paranoid that they have killed my internet access to my accounts now that the final bill has been issued (which would be a bit annoying considering that I don't get paper bills - so I would never be able to see this final bill at all!).

I was hoping that my mind could be put at ease by someone on here who can corroborate the maintenance situation at the house.co.uk website.

KathrynPenguin

Wow you are lucky having no previous problems, I NEVER seem to get my billfirst go. Got the same message as you this morning and now I'm getting a different one.

SOO glad I'm moving to a house without gas!

tomstickland

I'm on click energy and my bill has not been availabe once yet. They told me that they had problems with the site and it wasn't finished yet.

Richard_III_2

It doesn't work for me either. I've given up on BG. Trying to switch to Atlantic, but apparently you have to be very patient:wall:

Cardew

Same problem.

Their on-line accounts has always been slow for me.

Mercenary

Same problem here too. I've been unable to view our Gas bills for months now....ever since they started updating their billing system. Can now sometimes get in to the previous bill, but that's no good to me at this moment in time.
However, they do manage to inform me that our monthly direct debit is now rocketing up to £85. This payment was £35.50 in March, was then hiked to £55.50 with the price-rise in May, now this! And we're in credit as it's been summer.
Just waiting for our transfer to Atlantic to go through.....

Richard_III_2

Mercenary wrote:

Same problem here too. I've been unable to view our Gas bills for months now....ever since they started updating their billing system. Can now sometimes get in to the previous bill, but that's no good to me at this moment in time.
However, they do manage to inform me that our monthly direct debit is now rocketing up to £85. This payment was £35.50 in March, was then hiked to £55.50 with the price-rise in May, now this! And we're in credit as it's been summer.
Just waiting for our transfer to Atlantic to go through.....

The ridiculous price rises and increase in DD lead me to (start!) the switch to Atlantic.

In February they wrote to me explaining they review accounts twice a year. As I was in credit (partway through the winter), they refunded me nearly £100, they didn't change the DD.

In August they wrote to me again. I'm still in credit (being summer). This time they said they were raising my DD from £25 to £66; 160% increase - !!!!!!.

I think this is just a scam so that they can increase their cash flow, and pay out some fat cat bonuses :mad:

barrymoney

yes, I agree, anyone in credit with DD is a nice earner for them.
As for me, I've spent 5 months trying to get a correct *first* bill from them, under my name (rather than 'the Occupier'). 5 long phonecalls so far. Hmm, surely not a ploy to put me off switching after its finally sorted?

The house.co.uk site is a bit flaky, but I did manage to log in a few days back. Its slow. I always use IE for that site, I've had weird probs with Opera there.

Cardew

barrymoney wrote:

yes, I agree, anyone in credit with DD is a nice earner for them.

I think this is just a scam so that they can increase their cash flow, and pay out some fat cat bonuses

There are apparently far more people in Debit with the utility companies than in Credit!

There is post after post on this Forum accusing British Gas of profiteering and robbing their customers. Every price change has to be justified and approved by the Government appointed regulator.

From The Guardian last month:

Centrica said the soaring cost of wholesale gas saw British Gas make record losses of £143m in the first half of "its most difficult year".

In fact it is that self same regulator that prevents BG reducing its gas prices and undercutting its competitors. If they didn’t do this, a company as big as Centrica(who own BG) could afford to subsidise BG and stand even bigger losses and thus put other firms out of business. Once the competition had disappeared they would have a monopoly and then they would really cash in.

Before anyone asks the usual puerile question – No I don’t work for BG!

barrymoney

I do wonder if that 'loss' is really what the man in the street would consider a loss (one arm of a company making big profit, the other a smaller loss?).... but yes, I take your points.
I will switch, if BG ever give me a proper bill.

Richard_III_2

Cardew wrote:

There are apparently far more people in Debit with the utility companies than in Credit!

Cardew wrote:

Every price change has to be justified and approved by the Government appointed regulator.

Why am I expected to cough up more cash and run a positive balance?

I might be running a very tight budget. This could push me over the edge. More important bills might default (mortgage/council tax). Luckily I'm not in that situation.

The point I was trying to get across is that a 160% increase in my monthly DD is NOT justified unless gas prices have gone up by 160% (or I had arrears, which I don't)

Surely the regulator should have controls over the arbitrary way BG can simply choose to extract more money from customers. Over 6 years with BG my circumstances haven't changed, therefore I'm assuming my gas usage pattern is well known to BG. These 6 years have produced a positive balance of £100. Far enough. It just seems very fishy to me that they decide to refund the money half way through the winter, then six months later decide that I need to up my payment by 160% - rant over. They've lost my custom. I've finally got up off my grumpy old ar5e and switched.:p